Dave its funny that you mention farmers walk. I was at a scottish highland games once, and at the end they had a farmers walk contest, winner gets $500. There were a lot of the better pro athletes there, in fact even Ryan Viera was there and he is now like 5 time world champ... so i didnt really give myself much of a chance to win... but the handles on the implements were like a regular bar, not thick like they sometimes are... and I hooked those suckers and kicked everyones butt!!! I walked till my legs and lungs wore out, literally, the grip never slipped. I am sure i was the only one there that used the hook. because i know there were guys there with grips far stronger than mine, and everyone else, i mean everyone, stopped because the grip on one hand or the other failed, not because they couldnt walk any further.

anyway, just a funny story about how i made a few $$ because I knew how to hook, along with making my thumbs hurt for about a month.

Dave its funny that you mention farmers walk. I was at a scottish highland games once, and at the end they had a farmers walk contest, winner gets $500. There were a lot of the better pro athletes there, in fact even Ryan Viera was there and he is now like 5 time world champ... so i didnt really give myself much of a chance to win... but the handles on the implements were like a regular bar, not thick like they sometimes are... and I hooked those suckers and kicked everyones butt!!! I walked till my legs and lungs wore out, literally, the grip never slipped. I am sure i was the only one there that used the hook. because i know there were guys there with grips far stronger than mine, and everyone else, i mean everyone, stopped because the grip on one hand or the other failed, not because they couldnt walk any further.

anyway, just a funny story about how i made a few $$ because I knew how to hook, along with making my thumbs hurt for about a month.

glenn

Ack! sounds nasty..I get to about 280-300 farmers on a regular bar and even with a hook, my palms just feel like they are flayed...

In my experience, grip is only ever an issue in the snatch, and it's really a product of the extreme angle you're attaching yourself to the bar. So in that sense, the typical grip work doesn't transfer much at all (e.g. farmer's walk, hanging from bar) unless you can mimic that angle - which you can do fairly well with farmers' walk implements like dumbbells by tilting them.

That said, the other problem is that static holds of that nature are training grip stamina more than strength. How long do you have to hold onto a bar to snatch it? 2 seconds max?

The issue is maintaining a tight grip while accelerating a heavy load - very different from just hanging onto something and walking around. That being the case, I think a more effective option is doing some kind of pull without straps - for example, a short pull off blocks with a snatch grip - working that acceleration. Don't bring it back down - drop it - because that lowering part is what's going to destroy your hands and very quickly limit how much you can do and how many times.

Like others have already said, this is not something you want to do on a very frequent or high-volume basis. I would try maybe 5-15 total reps 1x/week after workouts for a few weeks and see what happens.

I would like to add an update to my original post. Perhaps grip strength is not really my issue. This week I worked out on Tuesday night. I snatched using hook grip doing about 10 reps working singles from 165lbs up to 195lbs. No grip issues at all. I had some tape over a couple torn spots on my hands and used just a little chalk on my index, pointer, and thumb.

So fast forward to Wednesday night, I go out to my garage because I just wanted to work some Snatch grip deadlifts. I start doing some warmup sets and it was hard as hell trying to hold onto 135lbs. I don't know how to describe it but other than it was just really uncomfortable and kind of burning sensation. I went up to about 185lbs with warmup sets trying to fight through the uncomfortableness, then finally switched over to straps and did 225lbs x 2 x 6.

Brian,
To answer your question, give it time, your hands will toughen. As Glenn said, the straps are normally used to save the hands. I, personally, always use straps on my heavier pulls for that reason. No grip problem here.

Glenn and Greg,
Very related question to this thread.

How tight should one grip the bar when pulling with a hook grip? I find when I just get a nice hook and don't think about my grip, things go better. As a oppossed to really getting a good gorilla grip on the bar like when I'm getting ready to pull a very heavy strapless deadlift.

What Arden said. You'll go through periods in which your hands are just super raw and you'll just hate touching the bar. This is a good time to use straps. Get some cornhuskers lotion and use it all day long.

Arden -

I think this probably varies quite a bit among athletes depending on hand size and strength. I have relatively small hands, and as I get up to heavier weights, I have to grip the living shit out of the bar or it slips at the end of my second pull/beginning of third. This also helps me stay connected tightly during that transition - I think a lot of people get loose here - almost throw the bar up and catch it, rather than staying connected and really changing directions immediately and fluidly.

Im the opposite of Greg on this, probably because I have big hands. I can get 3 fingers over my thumb on the hook if I want to... but I dont, i use 2. I stay pretty loose in the hand when pulling. Im probably not representative of Olers... besides big hands I had a pretty strong grip from pre OLing days when I did both PL and lots of grip specialization like rolling thunder holds, ironmind grippers, sledgehammer tricks, etc. so in OL grip has always been an afterthought for me.

I'm blessed with some big mits. But I have to remind myself to grip tight until I get to the top of the second pull otherwise I lose a bit of control on the bar. If that makes sense? The hook grip makes it a lot easier.

Today, I was playing and did some light pulls while only holding the bar with my thumb and index finger in the hook. It was solid as all get out.

The biggest issue I have is tearing callouses that are caused by weilding an axe for extended periods of time.